Alienating Friends, Ignoring The Threat Of Enemies

The American Thinker posted an article today about President Obama’s remarks in Australia regarding climate change. Unfortunately, the President’s tactless remarks could have a negative economic impact on all Americans.

The Melbourne Herald Sun posted an article today with the headline, “Attention America: your windbag president is pushing Australia China’s way.” So much for improving America’s relationships with its allies.

The article reports:

TRADE and Investment Minister Andrew Robb … has sent Barack Obama a sharp return-fire message: that Australia expects to be treated with respect — not insulted — and that the President’s remarks in Brisbane were wrong, misinformed and unnecessary…

The Robb remarks are both an honest expression of sentiment in much of the Abbott cabinet and a useful message to the Obama White House about the President’s gratuitous intervention in Australian politics against the Abbott government…

Robb told Sky News’s Australian Agenda program yesterday he was “surprised” by Obama’s speech, he believed the President was “not informed” about Australia’s climate change policy, that his “content was wrong”, that Australia’s 2020 targets were “roughly comparable” to those of the US and other nations, that his speech gave “no sense” to government efforts to protect the Great Barrier Reef and that his remarks were “misinformed” and “unnecessary”.

…Mr Robb also intensified pressure within the government to alter its position and join the China regional infrastructure bank, playing down the security factors that led cabinet’s National Security Committee to reject membership at this time.

 

It is becoming very obvious that President Obama’s extreme agenda does not play well with those countries in the world that we have traditionally called our friends. I hope the American voters will make a better choice in 2016.

 

American Sentenced To Death In Iran–Accused Of Spying

Sky News reported today that Amir Mirzaei Hekmati was convicted of being a CIA spy and sentenced to death by an Iranian court. Mr. Hekmati is a former U. S. Marine. One report stated that he was carrying his military identification. Do we really believe that the CIA would send in a spy with military identification? Mr. Hekmati’s parents have stated that he was there to visit his grandparents. Mr. Hekmati holds dual citizenship in American and Iran.

The article at Sky News puts the arrest and conviction of Mr. Hekmati in context:

Three American hikers were jailed in Tehran on spying charges in 2009 after they were arrested along the Iran-Iraq border.

Shane Bauer and Josh Fattal, who spent more than two years in custody, were freed on a $1m bail deal last September.

Their friend Sarah Shourd was released on bail in 2010.

Hekmati’s trial took place as Washington announced new sanctions against Iran over its nuclear programme.

In December, Barack Obama signed into law sanctions that will cut off from the US financial system financial institutions that work with Iran’s central bank.

Unfortunately, Mr. Hekmati is the innocent player caught in a very nasty international chess game. Iran believes that Mr. Hekmati can be used as a hostage to prevent sanctions on Iran from being implemented. If that doesn’t work, they can collect a tidy ransom. This is the kind of thing that happens when America has a weak President.

 

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